Everything is Hotsy-Totsy Now

As the sun was preparing to rise over Manhattan on July 13, 1929, the Hotsy-Totsy Club was still jumping. The band was playing, people were dancing, drinking and carrying on in true Roaring Twenties fashion. 

On the premises were the clubs part owners Jack Legs Diamond and a confederate of his, Charles Entratta. At some point in the wee hours West Side bootlegger William "Red" Cassidy, who owned his own club and was part owner of a brewery with Owney Madden, stopped in with his brother Peter and a Sing Sing alumnus who went by Simon Walker.

To make a long blog entry short, after awhile and argument broke out. The words flew followed by bullets. In a matter of seconds Red Cassidy and Simon Walker were dead on the floor. Peter was wounded and Diamond and Entratta disappeared for months.

Though Cassidy and Walker were the only victims that night, a number of employees who witnessed the murders were also dispatched. Two Hotsy-Totsy employees, the entertainment manager Hymie Cohen and laborer Tommy Ribler simply disappeared. A few days later the perforated body of waiter/bartender William Wolgast popped up in Jersey, forever silenced.

Detectives caught up with Entratta first in Chicago. He was brought back to New York City for trial and beat the rap. After that Diamond surrendered and the charges against him were dropped. 

Simon Walker

To learn more about the Legs Diamond and the Hotsy-Totsy club check out Legs Diamond: Gangster.

Sorry Charlie

Charles Entratta was a former associate of Jack "Legs" Diamond with dealings go back to the 1920s. He was with Diamond in the Hotsy-Totsy club when the guns went off  in the summer of 1929 leaving gangland fellows, William Cassidy and Simon Walker dead.

Like Diamond, Entratta disappeared while the homicide detectives searched in vain for them. Eventually arrested in Chicago, Entratta was sent back to New York City to face a murder trial. He beat the rap, which allowed Diamond to come out of hiding and to be himself, exonerated.  Since none of the boys helped Entratta during his troubles, his relationship with Diamond soured.

Fast forward to the summer of 1931. In addition to a box factory and dress manufacturing plant, Entratta is part owner of Winkenfeld Bottling Company in Brooklyn. Using his underworld connections, it is assumed that Entratta was bottling beer and sales skyrocketed. Though lucrative, his enterprise was most unwelcome by the local beer barons and on July 6, of that year he was put out of business; permanently.

Moments after arriving at the bottling office in his chauffeured sedan, Entratta was gunned down by three men while talking to his partner. His partner was physically unharmed...economically? Sales probably plummeted.

Charles Entratta